• by Larry Dobrow , January 14, 2004

Hoping to educate, enliven, and unite New York's interactive advertising community, a coterie of industry veterans have come together to form 212. Billing itself as "New York's Interactive Advertising Club," the new group plans to pick up where a host of now-defunct new media organizations left off.

Given that New York City is the epicenter of the interactive ad business, it's fairly amazing that the community has been without a support group to call its own for some time now. "The Advertising Club of New York used to have an interactive committee, but the dot-com sponsor money dried up and eventually [interactive marketing] wasn't worth their time," explains Brian Quinn, president of 212's board of directors and CBS MarketWatch's vice president of Eastern region ad sales. "NYNMA [the New York New Media Association] went away a few weeks ago, and at the end they were mostly about economic development, anyway. The MPA [Magazine Publishers of America] events aren't for interactive people--everybody's in blue blazers and khakis. There was clearly a void."

212's roots can be traced to a meeting last year of the Boston Interactive Media Association. When Quinn looked around the room, half the people he saw were New York-area peers. "What they got right was the involvement of agencies," he recalls. "It wasn't just sales guys walking around and looking for jobs." Given that the NYC market isn't exactly known for its low concentration of salespeople, 212 has already taken steps to ensure that it remains primarily a group for people interested in interactive advertising: agency and corporate employees can join for free, while salespeople have to ante up $50 for a year's membership.

Quinn also hopes to lure a different membership mix than the usual professional society crowd. "The best advice we got was from a media director, who said, 'Don't create something for people like me. Do it for the people who work'"--namely, the mid-level staffers who put in the longest hours, rather than experienced pros more likely to attend Interactive Agency Bureau executive summits. Two seats on the group's board of directors have been reserved for mid-level workers; Quinn says the slots will be filled within a few months.

It's 212's board of directors, in fact, that lends the organization most of its credibility. In addition to Quinn, the group counts well-regarded executives from OMD, Universal McCann, About.com, and Disney Online among its founding members. "They're going to make sure their people are involved," Quinn promises. And while this hopefully won't give the group's non-social events the air of an "optional" homework assignment, there's little question that these events, as envisioned, should prove a boon for younger interactive ad pros who are interested in career development. Early plans for 2004 include a handful of "Dialed-In" educational events (say, tips from a media firm on how an online budget is allocated) and regular "Meet the Marketers" panel discussions.

In other words, would-be wonks should probably look elsewhere. "We're not trying to work on papers or come out with new standards--that's for the IABs of the world," Quinn says. "We want to be a place for people who are passionate about this business, that's all."

For more information on 212, visit www.212nyc.org.